This part of the permanent exhibition of twentieth-century art presents the most decisive artists and endeavours from the period between the turn of the century and the end of World War II. In the section concentrating on art between 1896 and 1945, about 150 paintings, 30 sculptures and 200 medals are on display.

Late Renaissance and Baroque Art: The permanent exhibition of Late Renaissance and Baroque art (1550-1800) surveys the art of 250 years, beginning with Mannerist works made in Vienna and Prague in the years around 1600. The 17th century is represented by Hungarian ecclesiastical treasures, wooden epitaphs and tomb sculptures, as well as by depictions of Árpád-dynasty saints in Hungarian attire. Next, the show evokes the culture of aristocratic residences in the Baroque age by means of a painted travelling tapestry once belonging to Ferenc Rákóczi II, prince of Transylvania.

Early 18th-century art is represented by works of Bohemian, Silesian and German masters, and by those of their Hungarian counterparts who achieved fame abroad. Besides monumental works, altarpieces and fresco sketches help recall the one-time completeness of Baroque ecclesiastical art. Most of these works present scenes from the legends of Hungarian royal saints.

The exhibition is introduced by the post-1945 changes, works of art created in the spirit of progressiveness but at the same time linked to pre-war antecedents and testifying to a synthesis of styles that existed side by side and influenced each other (Expressionism, Constructivism, Surrealism, etc.). Visitors can see works from the 1950s: genre paintings, depictions of work and workers, and portraits in accordance with the dictatorship's arts policy of the day, these are stylistically homogeneous and follow the themes laid down at this time. In the next rooms there are works by a new generation.

Non-figurative trends existing in parallel appear as adaptations of Abstract Expressionism as well as of (Neo-)Geometrical, Structuralist and Organic endeavours. Figurative tendencies, versions of Pop Art and Hyperrealism, also significant at the time, are on view in the last section. On the corridor opening from the last row of rooms radical Avant-Garde works can be found primarily built on the use of photography, consisting largely of action documentations, and objects.